When developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix release the reboot of the Tomb Raider series next week, it will include a new way for the game's developers to create more realistic hair for the game's lead character Lara Croft.

AMD's blog talks about this new hair rendering engine that it helped to create with Crystal Dynamics. It's called TressFX Hair and as you can see in the image above, the effect allows for more detailed hair on a game character. AMD says it achieved this effect by programming with the DirectCompute language that is supposed to better use the Graphics Core Next design that some members of AMD's Radeon family of processors have inside.

This physics system treats each strand of hair as a chain with dozens of links, permitting for forces like gravity, wind and movement of the head to move and curl Lara’s hair in a realistic fashion. Further, collision detection is performed to ensure that strands do not pass through one another, or other solid surfaces such as Lara’s head, clothing and body. Finally, hair styles are simulated by gradually pulling the strands back towards their original shape after they have moved in response to an external force.